Friday, 25 February 2011

Why not be world-class?Why not be the best that only you can be?Why not work smarter instead of harder?Why not ask yourself deep thought provoking questions that will take you to the next level every day of your life?Why not live in the stretch zone every day?Why not learn a new skill?Why not think bigger than ever before?Why not set a great intention today and really go for it?Why not begin with the end in mind? Feel it, see it and hear it as if it has already happened.Why not do that difficult thing you have been putting off until today?Why not pick up the phone and call someone you have never spoken to before?Why not take action on something in your life that until now you have been putting on hold?Why not step into fear and move past it?Why not write a list of what you will no longer tolerate in your life?Why not be brave and ask?Why not change your environment today?

When we ask and challenge ourselves with the question why not, we open the inner doors in our minds to boundless possibility. We change how we think and feel and our life changes around us.

Wednesday, 16 February 2011

What takes your time away? Have you ever gone on facebook for five minutes and lost an hour?

The same can happen when you open your inbox, pick up the phone or get caught up in gossip within the workplace. Time and energy are precious; they are the two things we cannot ever get back again once lost.

I recently had a telephone conversation with a business associate in Minneapolis. She was stressed and overwhelmed by the fact that there were 3,500 unread emails in her inbox… WOW was my first reaction and then okay how do you deal with it?

Four Top Tips for Handling Emails

Stop using your inbox as a storage box.

Put chunks of time aside each day when you will focus on your inbox, no more than three times a day.

As you open each email, delete, respond or file out of your inbox.

Be ruthless and delete anything that has been lying in your inbox for months.

How to Handle Phone Distractions

Work as a team.

If you have a deadline to meet, work with a colleague next to you and ask him/her to take calls for you for one hour, then you can help them in return.

Return all your outgoing calls in one hour chunks. Build it into your diary.

How to Handle People Who Waste Time

Be firm and clear. Arrange to speak to them over lunch or at a coffee break.

Always when meeting, set a start and finish time.

I encourage you to use your energy wisely because without world class levels of energy, you cannot be or reach world class in business.

Tuesday, 8 February 2011

The world in 2011 is transforming like never before and with it customer’s habits and needs have and are changing. We are all caught up on the hamster wheel of global change; however some things will never change, like meeting the customers on their level, asking the right questions and solving the current pain in their market place.

Seven Tips on How to Meet Your Customer’s Needs:

Communicate, ask questions and shut up.

Get deep on what your customer really want and need, not what you think they need.

Find out what they love.

Find out what they are passionate about.

Know at least 20 things about your top customers.

Send a gift to them, example: books, tickets, flowers, be original.

Personalise your gifts.

Why not in 2011 become so brilliant at what you do that you become the number one go to source in your market.

Tuesday, 1 February 2011

Have you ever had the experience where you were delayed for hours at an airport somewhere in the world?

Last week I checked in at Liverpool Airport to take the short 35 minute flight to Dublin. I had one and a half hours to spare so I bought myself a black coffee. As I looked at the board I couldn't believe what I saw, my flight which was due out at 11:05am was now not departing until 3:35pm. At that moment all around me, the negativity started moaning and whingeing and I had to quickly reframe my thinking.

What if I used this time to write my blogs in advance?

What if I used this time to go over the final points of my Master Class for the next day?

What if I reviewed my goals and vision for 2011?

By just changing my thinking to ‘what if’, my whole mindset changed and I achieved more in the following four and a half hours than I had in the last two days.

Top Tips on What to Do When Your Life is Delayed

Ask yourself ‘what if'?

Always go prepared to an airport, take a book, laptop, notebook, pens.

Move away from negative Nellie’s and Ned’s.

Breathe in relaxation, breathe out stress.

Find a comfortable chair/table from where you can work, read or just relax.

Use your time wisely.

Clean up your to do list.

Pause and be grateful that at least you were not sitting on a plane on the runway for four and a half hours and know that sometimes in life delays can be positive.